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This was not the first time Jason Spezza asked for a trade. This was just the first time he was serious and got his wish.

Four years ago, after a difficult season, Spezza sat down with the Senators and told them he wanted out.

He didn't want to play here any longer, he wanted to move on and try his luck elsewhere.

Owner Eugene Melnyk decided it was time for a heart-to-heart chat with the club's captain in waiting. They sat down and worked it out. By the end, Spezza re-committed.

This time, the Senators knew Spezza was serious and as much as he's not being painted with same brush as Dany Heatley, this decision to move on isn't much better than that fiasco.

"With the request being made three or four times to us, and in spite of what everybody else says, we didn't encourage any movement and we were asked if it would happen," said GM Bryan Murray.

Spezza, who has one year left on his contract at $4 million with a $7 million cap hit, is headed for greener pastures (and uniforms) in Dallas.

He can play in relative obscurity with little pressure.

Trying to come to his own defence on a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon, the 30-year-old Spezza claimed it wasn't the pressure that got to him.

"There has been a lot said about me not wanting to play in Canada and not wanting to deal with the pressure," said Spezza. "Those things will all be believed to be what they are.

"I've been there for 12 years and dealt with a lot of the pressure. I expect a lot of myself. Just because I'm going to a non-traditional hockey market I'm still going to have a high demand on myself as a player. That won't change."

Those around the Senators aren't sure that's exactly the case.

They feel Spezza spent far too much time listening to the criticism of his turnovers on TSN 1200 and reading the newspapers.

There is no question Spezza was a lightning rod for criticism but that comes with the business. People in the organization told him that was part of the deal of playing here.

He claimed he didn't feel the finger was unfairly pointed at him.

"I was the highest paid guy on the team and I was a guy who had been there for a long time," said Spezza. "Fingers were pointed me at times but I also got credit at times.

"I don't think when you play in a Canadian market and you play in a city like that and when you are in the same spot for a long time, I think you expect not to have the finger pointed at you it's an unrealistic expectation. At times, the finger was pointed at me but it was the reality of being in the situation I was in."

Murray told me differently in New York following the meetings at the Stanley Cup final.

Murray maintained people are going to believe what they want. He knows the departure of captain Daniel Alfredsson and now Spezza have hurt but wants people to know he's telling the truth about their departures.

"I hear the comments that we don't spend," said Murray. "Just so you know, I offered Jason an extension and he said they weren't interested.

"There are different stories in each case. I tell my version. You go to someone else and they tell a different version. That's the one that's believed. That's been frustrating to me. I tell it the way it is. I don't usually fib at anybody."

So, the Spezza era in Ottawa is over. It ended on a July day, the Senators were hoping to get more for him and do more to improve. He held a gun to their head and he couldn't come to camp.

The Senators gave Spezza every chance to succeed. He couldn't get it done here and, in the end, he didn't want to get it done here either. Fingers will be pointed in every direction.